I'm a fan of English milds, but they're usually on the order of 3-4% abv and full flavored, but then again this follows the history of the style. I love that Pretty Things is doing that, so I hope this recipe is good.

Pours a nice large fluffy 2 finger head that sticks around for a while, reinforced by all the bubbles streaming from the etch at the bottom of the SA PP glass, fades eventually with nice layered and soapy thick lacing, quite clear amber-ish orange color.

Nose starts with a bit of booze actually, some phenols with that booze aroma, some golden blond style malts under that, fair amount of sweet malts, hint of citrus zest like and maybe a touch of clementine, hint of esters, mild grassy hops and grassy hay like malts even, fairly earthy like aroma.

Taste starts with malts this time at first, little grainy with grassy and earthy chewy malts, strange like malts actually, a bit of a golden blond style too. Then jumps into phenols, the booze with that, typical Belgian yeast like phenols and a hint of fusel booze, as well as a little estery. Fruits come along with those, mild green apple, touch of pear and tangerine. Hops cut in surprisingly as I didn't think they used that many hops back then, with slight herbal vegetal hop, typical hedgerow U.K. style like, little grassy and earthy as well, and fair bitterness. The bitterness turns spicy as it finishes, although not as dry as I expected, little sweet sticky, and some lingering golden and grassy malts, long lingering earthy herbal spicy hops, and some phenolic booze.

Mouth is med to fuller bodied, fluffy carb, plenty of warming booze but not quite tingly, maybe a bit too much carbonation.

Overall OK, but not great. Nothing by what could even closely resemble today's milds, although this is the XXXX variety, so strong and big. I do like the bite of booze bringing the phenols, and grassy herbal earthy hops are a nice touch although not my fav hops by any means, and fairly tasty but not amazing. Fairly balanced though for the booze, sweetness, and bitterness.

Hard to rate this one according to style, since it's a recreation of a style that doesn't really exist any more. Rated more on how much.I enjoyed it.

Pours a hazy light copper with a solid white head. Good head retention.

Smells very malty and syrupy. Very little hop aroma. Not much of interest here.

Malty and sweet up front. Almost a barley wine character. Followed up by an assertive bitterness, but not too much hop flavor. A lot of alcohol heat in this one. Website claims its brewed without refrigeration, which might account for that. A bit of apple and grainy huskiness, but its really dominated by sweetness and alcohol heat.

Full bodied and bordering on syrupy. A bit of astringency and alcohol heat in the finish as well. Low carbonation.

Overall, an interesting beer for historical reasons, but I can see why such beers aren't brewed frequently today. Relatively simple maltiness and bitterness without a lot of flavors to fill it out. I really lke that pretty things is doing this project, but I wouldn't buy this again.